Mr. Weil could wait no longer. His musical laugh rang out over the room.
"Let this be a warning to you, Shirley," he said, "to wear corsets."
"It is no joke," was the indignant comment of Mr. Walker Boggs, as he proceeded to add to his rotundity by devouring the hearty breakfast that the waiter had just brought him. "I am left like a marooned sailor on the sea of life. The only occupation that could have entertained me is gone. It is no time to enter business again, I couldn"t have selected a wiser one to leave it. I don"t want to marry, once was enough of that.
The only women I can attract are those commercially inclined females that any other man could have as well as I. What is the result? My life is ruined. I take no pleasure in anything. I eat, walk about, go to a play, sleep. A _pig_ could do as much; and a pig would not have these memories to haunt him, these recollections of a time so different that I am almost driven wild."
Roseleaf felt a sincere pity for the unfortunate gentleman, and did not see the slightest element of humor in his melancholy recital. But Archie Weil could not be restrained.
"You"re right about that pig business," he remarked. "You recall the incident in Mother Goose, where--
"A little pig found a fifty dollar note, And purchased a hat and a very fine coat."
"There are strange parallels in history."
Mr. Boggs would have replied to this remark in the terms it deserved had he not been too much engaged at the moment in masticating a particularly fine chop. As it was he growled over the meat like a mastiff in bad humor.
"Are there no remedies for excessive acc.u.mulation of fat in the abdominal region?" asked Weil, taking his advantage. "It seems to me I have read advertis.e.m.e.nts of them in the newspapers."
"Remedies!" retorted the other, having swallowed the food and supplemented it with a gla.s.s of ale. "There are a thousand, and I have tried them all. I have taken things by the gross. I have paid money to every quack I could find. For awhile I starved myself so nearly to death that I went to making my will. And every day I grew stouter. I don"t know what I measure now, and I don"t care. A few fathoms more or less, doesn"t count, when one falls from a steamer in midocean."
Mr. Weil took occasion to say that there was no need for this extreme discouragement. A little coin in the hand, or a new diamond ring, would still bring youth and beauty to his disconsolate friend.
"That"s just it," retorted Boggs. "It"s the contrast that"s killing me.
The only women who would look at me to-day are mercenary ones that wouldn"t care if I was black as Oth.e.l.lo or big as George IV. Why, I could show you a trunkful of letters, written me by the finest women in this country, when I was at my best. They breathe but one thing--love, love, love! I lived on it! It was the air that kept my lungs in motion.
And I thought to go back to it so easily! _Ah!_"
Mr. Boggs commenced upon his fourth chop and emptied the last of the quart bottle into his gla.s.s.
"Well, I"m sorry for you," said Weil. "I think the times must have changed, as well as yourself, though. Now, here"s a young fellow, with all the qualifications of face, figure and address that you once had, and he claims to be unable to make the acquaintance of a single interesting woman between Brooklyn Bridge and Spuyten Duyvil."
The heavy eyes of Mr. Walker Boggs rested upon the youthful face opposite to him. Under the scrutiny to which he was subjected Roseleaf reddened, in the way he had. He had never looked more handsome.
"This is evidently a jest of yours," said Boggs, turning to Mr. Weil.
"Not in the least, I a.s.sure you."
"Then I say he can do what he likes, and I know it," replied the stout man. "If I had his form I"d have to ask the police to clear the way for me. I have seen circulation impeded in front of this very hotel because I was coming out to take my carriage. If he won"t look at them, why, of course, the women can"t do it all, but it lies with him."
Roseleaf"s eyes glistened with a strange mixture of hope and fear. He did not think he would care to be in such great demand as that, but he dearly wished to break through the iron bars that enclosed him. He glanced in a gla.s.s that paneled the wall near by. He was good-looking enough, it was no vanity to say so. What he lacked was confidence.
"He is afraid of them, that"s his trouble," smiled Weil. "We will cure him of that, and when he gets to know women as they are he will give us a novel that will set all creation by the ears. Gouger--you know Gouger--says he writes the purest English. All he needs is a taste of life."
To this Mr. Boggs gave his unqualified a.s.sent. And he added that if he could be of any service in the matter he would only be too glad.
"We thank you for the offer, and may be able later to make use of it,"
said Mr. Weil. "And now good-morning, for we have important business to attend to."
Roseleaf looked long and earnestly at the person they were leaving. He seemed to him a very ordinary individual. If such a man had won the love of scores of beautiful women, surely he himself could gain the affections of one. When he stood with Weil in front of the hotel, by which an unrivaled procession of ladies and gentleman was already beginning to pa.s.s, though it was only eleven o"clock, he felt much encouraged.
"They are looking at you," whispered Archie, "plenty of them. Did you see those two girls in pink in that landau? Why, they nearly broke their necks to get the last glimpse of you. There is another lady who would stop if you asked her, pretty as any of them, though she must be nearly thirty. Your eyes are not open. Ah, here is something better! In that carriage, with the t.i.tian tresses!"
It was Miss Millicent Fern, and she bowed to Mr. Weil. Then her bright eyes lit up with a new l.u.s.tre as they fell upon his companion.
CHAPTER V.
STUDYING MISS MILLICENT.
When Mr. Weil made his appearance at the residence of Mr. Wilton Fern, the door was opened for him by a young negro of such superb proportions that the caller could not help observing him with admiration. He thought he had never seen a man more perfectly formed. The face, though too dark to suggest the least admixture of Caucasian blood, was well featured.
The lips were not thick nor was the nose flat, as is the case with so many of the African race. The voice, as the visitor heard it, was by no means unpleasant. Mr. Weil could not imagine a better model for an ebony statue than this butler, or footman, or whatever position, perhaps both, he might be engaged to fill.
"Yes, sir, Miss Millicent is in, and she is expecting you," said the negro, in his pleasant and strong tones. "Let me take your hat and stick. Now, sir, this way."
Miss Fern came in a few moments to the parlor, where Archie was left, and greeted him most cordially.
"There is a sitting-room on the next floor," she said, "where we shall not be disturbed. I have given Hannibal orders to admit no one, saying that we shall want the evening entirely to ourselves."
"Hannibal?" repeated the visitor. "Is that the name of the remarkable individual who received me just now?"
"Yes," said Miss Fern, rather coldly. "Though I do not know why you call him "remarkable.""
"He is so tall, so grand, so entirely overpowering," explained Mr. Weil.
"One would think he might be the son of an African king. I never saw a black man that gave me such an impression of force and power."
Millicent elevated her eyebrows a little, as if annoyed at these expressions. She answered, still frigidly, that she had noticed nothing unusual about Hannibal. She did not believe she had looked closely enough at his face to be able to identify him in a court.
"He would make a fine character for a novel," said Mr. Weil, as they walked together up the broad staircase. "I could almost write one myself, around such a personality."
The young lady looked disgusted.
"A negro servant!" she exclaimed. "What kind of a novel could you write with such a central figure?"
"Perhaps I should not put him in the centre," laughed Archie, determined to win her good nature. "Every story needs lights and shades. You can"t deny that he would cast a magnificent shadow."
The humor of this observation struck Miss Fern and she joined mildly in her companion"s mirth. Then she remarked that the central figure of a novel--the main thing in it--to her mind, should be a being who could be given the attributes of beauty and grace. The minor characters were of less account, and would come into existence almost of their own accord.
"And now, before we do anything more," she said, "I want you to tell me about that excessively handsome young man that I saw with you yesterday in Madison Square."
Weil was delighted at this introduction of his young friend. He began a most flattering account of Shirley Roseleaf, describing him as a genuine paragon among men, both in talent and goodness. He drew heavily on his imagination as he proceeded, feeling that he was "in for it," and might as well do his best at once. And he could see the cheek of the young listener taking on a new and more enticing color as he went farther and farther into his subject.
"If I have to rearrange my novel--the one Mr. Gouger rejected--I shall draw my hero after that model," she cried, when he paused for breath. "I never saw a man who came so near my ideal."
"But--you would have to alter your hero"s character, in that case?" he said. "I have read your MSS., and your description does not tally with my young friend at all."
Miss Fern reddened.